Improvement in the manufacture of horseshoes



J.A.BURnEN-. MANUFACTURE 0F BRSE-SHOES,'

No.183,250. Patented ovh-17,1876.

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N. PETERS. FHOTO-LITHQGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, o C.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE. I

JAMES A. BURDEN, OF TROY, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSESHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 183,250, dated October17, 1876; application filed March 20, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES A. BURDEN, of the city of Troy, in the countyof Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in the Manufacture of Horseshoes by Machinery; and that the.following is a full, true, and exact description of my saidimprovement, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, whichform a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of horseshoes by passing rolledbars of iron through machines, which cut oft' portions"of said rolledbars of the proper length, and bend the same into the proper shape toform horseshoes.

It has been found by experience that to make a practical and successfulhorseshoe by the mode referred to the bars must be taken from the rollsand fed to the cutting and bending machine before cooling and while in ahi ghly-heated state.

To make a good shoe, the angles or corners of the bar must be sharp andwell defined. If a bar reduced by rolling to the proper size for ahorseshoe is allowed to become cold, and is then reheated, the angles ofthe bar will be melted or burned off before the interior has becomesufficiently heated to be submitted to the operation of thehorseshoemachine, so that, as above stated, the bar can only be usedbefore cooling and while still highly heated; but in using the bar inthis condition another diflculty is encountered, which it is the objectof my invention to obviate.

It has been found that in passing through the rolls which are keptconstantly chilled by Water dropping on them the bar becomes unequallyheated-that is to say, the exterior', which is in l actual contact withthe rolls, becomes cooled or chilled, so that it is much more solid thanthe interior of the same bar. The result is, that different parts of thebar oppose an unequal resistance to the bending force, and the shoes somade are imperfect and defective.

I obviate this difficulty by the use of an intermediate furnace betweenthe rolls and the horseshoemachine after the bar of iron has beenreduced to the proper size and shape by passing through the rolls, andwhile it is still highly heated I pass it slowly through suchintermediate furnace, and from the furnace directly into the cutting andbending machine. 'By passing through this furnace, the exterior of thebar is reheated, and the whole bar brought to a uniform temperature,thus obviating the defects above mentioned.

I do not confine myself to a furnace of any particular shape or size;but it should be of such a length that the exterior of the bar will besufficiently heated by passing through the furnace at the ordinary rateof speed at which such bars can be fed to the cutting and bendv ingmachine.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 3 is a representation of the rollsthrough which the bars of horseshoe -iron are passed to reduce them tothe proper size and shape. Fig. 2 is a plan of machinery, showing onemode of applying my invention; and Fig. 1 is a section of said machinethrough the lines Gr G.

In Figs. 2 and 3, (l represents an elevated trough, on which the barsare laid as they come from the rolls D. B is my intermediate furnace,and A is the cutting and bending machine.

The operation of myinvention is as follows: The bars of iron are rolledto the proper size in the train D. They are then placed on the trough'or guide C. A workman with a pair of tongs seizes the bar at H, andpushes it along the trough into the furnace B. Another workman seizesthe end of the bar at K, and pushes it into the cutting and bendingmachine A. The furnace B is fired at doors L L.

It will be seen that as one bar follows another their rate ofprogression through the furnace will be the same as that at which theycan be fed into the cutting and bending machine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Let- The above-described improvement in the manufacture ofhorseshoes by machinery, consisting in passing the horseshoe bars, afterthey have left the rolls, and while th ey are still highly heated,through an intermediate furnace, and thence into the cutting and bendingmachine, substantially as and for the purposes specified. n

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 18th day of March,1876.

. JAMES A. BURDEN.

Witnesses:

J oEN J. HAssETT, C. D. KELLUM.

